Newsworld Desk: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has easily won the US state of Nevada, cementing his lead after consecutive wins in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are locked in battle for second place. Party officials said they were looking into reports of double voting and not enough ballots at one caucus site. Some volunteers also wore clothing in support of Mr Trump, but officials said this was not against the rules. (BBC)

WASHINGTON Turkey and the United States are working on plans to provide air cover for Syrian rebels and jointly sweep Islamic State fighters from a strip of land along the Turkish border, bolstering the NATO member’s security and possibly providing a safe haven for civilians. Long a reluctant member of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, Turkey last week made a dramatic turnaround by granting the alliance access to its air bases and bombarding targets in Syria linked to the jihadist movement. Struggling with more than 1.8 million Syrian refugees, Turkey has long campaigned for a “no-fly zone” in northern […]

The U.S. Army says it will soon be sending armored Stryker vehicles on a 1,100-mile convoy through six European countries to show solidarity to allies in the wake of recent Russian actions in the Ukraine and Crimea that have Eastern Europe on edge. The move was first reported Thursday in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. U.S. Army Europe posted the Stripes story on its website on Friday. The convoy is “a highly visible demonstration of U.S, commitment to its NATO allies and demonstrating NATO’s ability to move military forces freely across allied borders in close cooperation,” U.S. Army Europe […]

The US Senate has approved a new annual defence bill expanding the military campaign against Islamic State (IS). The bill approves a general Pentagon budget of $496bn (£316bn) plus $64bn for US wars abroad. The measure also authorises the training and equipping of moderate Syrian rebel fighters for two years. The bill had already been passed by the House of Representatives and has now been sent to President Barack Obama to sign into law. IS controls large areas of Syria and Iraq, imposing a rigid version of Sunni Islam and persecuting or killing non-believers. The US-led coalition has launched more […]

Warm temperatures and rain were forecast for the weekend in the city of Buffalo and western New York, bringing the threat of widespread flooding to the region bound for days by deep snow. Areas where several feet of snow fell this week should brace for significant, widespread flooding, the National Weather Service warned on Friday. Swept by lake effect storms, parts of western New York including Buffalo, received as much as seven feet (2 meters) of snow, an amount equal to a year’s worth of accumulation for the region. Such storms occur when cold air moves across warmer Great Lake […]

President Barack Obama defended his decision to bypass Congress and overhaul U.S. immigration policy on his own on Friday, saying he was forced to act because House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner would not let legislation come to a vote. With many Americans skeptical of his decision to bypass Congress and impose an immigration overhaul unilaterally, Obama attempted to rally support for his move in a speech at a Las Vegas high school, saying illegal immigrants need a chance to come out of the shadows. He engaged in a cross-country debate with Boehner, the top U.S. Republican, who accused Obama […]

US President Barack Obama and leaders in the House and Senate are due to hold cross-party talks aimed at ending political gridlock in Washington. Friday’s White House luncheon comes after the Republicans won control of the Senate in Tuesday’s elections. Mr Obama, a Democrat, and heads of both parties in the House of Representatives and Senate will explore avenues of compromise after years of rancour. Republicans have called the victory a rebuke of Mr Obama’s policies. On Friday, the US president will be joined by 16 senior legislators including presumptive next Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican House Speaker […]

U.S., four European countries call for end to violence in Libya The United States and four European countries jointly called on Saturday for an end to violence in Libya. The governments of France, Italy, Germany, Britain and the United States said in a statement that they “agree that there is no military solution to the Libyan crisis” and expressed dismay that calls for a ceasefire had not been respected. Dozens of people have been killed in Benghazi in days of fighting between Islamic militant groups, including Ansar al-Sharia, and pro-government forces led by former General Khalifa Haftar, who began an offensive […]

The head of Syria’s al Qaeda branch said militants will attack the West in retaliation for U.S.-led air strikes in Syria and Iraq, and President Barack Obama acknowledged U.S. intelligence had underestimated the rise of Islamic State fighters. U.S.-led air strikes hit a natural gas plant controlled by Islamic State fighters in eastern Syria, a monitoring body reported, part of an apparent campaign to disrupt one of the fighters’ main sources of income. The monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said planes also struck a grain silo in northern Syria killing civilians. This could not be immediately confirmed. U.S.-led strikes have so far failed […]

plan by U.S. protesters against illegal immigration to block traffic at more than a dozen border crossings in the southwest on Saturday was canceled after organizers said they received online threats from Mexican drug cartels. Billed as a “Shut Down All Ports Of Entry” protest against the Obama administration’s immigration policies, demonstrators had said they would try to stop incoming and outgoing traffic at 17 locations in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. But lead organizer Stasyi Barth posted a warning on the event’s official website saying that a combination of violent threats and “suspicious activity” on the group’s Facebook page prompted her […]